The Polish Educational Foundation in North America has recently (1999) published The Story of Two Shtetls, an important book which deals with Polish-Jewish relations in the eastern part of Poland during World War II. The book contains contributions by scholars and publicists, both Poles and Jews, from various countries.
The first part of The Story of Two Shtetls, consisting of 190 pages, is a balanced response to Marian Marzynski's highly controversial "documentary" film Shtetl, which first aired on PBS Frontline in April 1996. It contains an in-depth interview with Zbigniew Romaniuk, the young Polish historian who featured prominently in Shtetl, and historical writings by Romaniuk about his hometown of Bransk. Various authors provide penetrating critiques of Shtetl.
The second part of The Story of Two Shtetls, consisting of 244 pages, takes a critical look at the widely publicized claims made by Yaffa Eliach about an alleged pogrom that occurred in the town of Ejszyszki in October 1944. The events in question are examined in a scholarly and well-documented work that looks at the activities of Polish, Jewish and Soviet partisans in light of recently released Soviet archival documents. There is also an extensive treatment of Jewish-Polish relations and Jewish collaboration during the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in 1939-41, which draws on numerous Polish and Jewish sources. Both parts contain maps.
The Story of Two Shtetls is available from:
CPC/Toronto (Obrona)
206 Beverley Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5T 1Z3 (Canada)
* The cost for Canadian orders, postpaid, is $28 CDN.
* The cost for U.S. orders, postpaid, is $20 US (by surface mail).
* The cost for foreign orders outside the United States, postpaid, is $22 US (by surface mail).